Investigating Parents\u27 of Immigrant Origins Perceptions, Expectations and Experiences with American Educational Communities

The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate parents of Latino origins\u27 perceptions of educational environments in preschool programs in the US by examining individual experiences, expectations and socio-cultural understanding regarding American educational systems. Thisstudy consist of five female parents of Latino origin with children enrolled in a child care programat a midsouthern US, urban community college. Across the eight-week data collection period, the parents participated in a series of activities to communicate their perceptions and experiences with North American educational institutions. primary methods of collecting data includeda sequence ofinterviews, field observations recorded in a journal, parents\u27 photo representations of childhood icons, and a focus group discussion. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and all data forms were coded inductively to discover emerging patterns of parents experiences and expectations. To better understand the expectations and perceptions of Latino parents, as a collective group, I focused on two interpretive questions: 1) What are Latino origins parents perceptions of north American Schooling? 2) How do the cultural experiences and expectations of Latino parents influence their view of early childhood education? The following were identified as major themes:1) Language is more influential than cognitive ability. 2) Early childhood is viewed through a generational lens. Six sub-themes emerged from the two major themes:1) Latinos are marginalized by academic failure based on language; 2) North American Schools use language to equate cognitive abilities; 3) Latina have not observed greater cultural awareness; 4) Younger generations view early care as valuable; 5) Older generations view early care as unnecessary; and 6) Family is the primary educator of young children. The participants\u27 cultural perceptions of early care programs echo the connections between education, culture, race, family , and equality. By breaking the silence, and allowing parents of Latino origin to tell their story, researchers can document ways to construct and eliminate some of the limited social conditions in education

Harding College Spring Sing Program 1977

Program for the 1977 Spring Sing performance at Harding College. Hosts and Hostesses: Carol Jeannette Curtis, Kenneth Hershel Dowdy, Katrina Lou Wilson, James Timothy Woodroofhttps://scholarworks.harding.edu/spring-sing/1003/thumbnail.jp

Using technologies in teaching : an initiative in academic staff development

Academic staff development in the pedagogical applications of new technologies is fundamental to the transformation of teaching and learning in tertiary education settings. We present a case study of a staff development activity at Deakin University, a multi-campus university offering on and off-campus programs, which aimed to develop a collegial online experience for academics interested in using online technologies. It is contextualised within a broadly based centrally funded project initiated by the University to extend the use of technologies in significant curriculum areas. The initiative employed a text-based, asynchronous computer conferencing environment. We describe the structure of the online environment and explore the major issues raised by the participants based on their experience and evaluation of the conference. We conclude by raising key questions that draw on our experience of the successful outcome of this initiative to advance relevant and meaningful opportunities for academic staff development.<br /

Developing career aspirations of information technology students at Deakin University

It is important for students to develop informed and realistic career aspirations to gain the most value from their university studies towards achieving their initial career goals. However developing students&rsquo; career aspirations, goals, and expectations is a complex and discipline-specific process. In Information Technology (IT) no clear career development framework is evident in the literature. Recent research in Australia argues that electronic portfolios are a useful way for students to develop, articulate and document career objectives to enhance their employability. IT students at Deakin engage in formal training and assessment with respect to developing their professional skills and career understandings. Currently electronic portfolios feature as a useful method for evidencing professional competencies for employability. Through a combined quantitative and qualitative analysis of 306 students&rsquo; articulated current career aspirations, qualitative analysis of 7 staff opinions of desired student career competencies, and a quantitative analysis of 28 students&rsquo; current work personality traits assessments (Work Personality Index), this work presents an analysis of the current state of IT students&rsquo; career development. The results indicate that while students reported short-term career aspirations, navigating to their long-term career goals is going to require addressing difficult barriers such as confidence (self-perception) and motivation. This research will influence a larger program-wide endeavour to build student career competencies for employability in IT at Deakin University

Understanding career aspirations of Information Technology students at Deakin University

Students need to develop informed and realistic career aspirations to gain the most from their university studies towards their initial career development. However developing their aspirations, goals, and expectations is a complex process. In Information Technology (IT) no clear career development framework is evident in the literature. We present a pilot study which investigates the career aspirations of novice students studying IT at an Australian University. Through a series of career activities their aspirations were explored with the aim of improving support for career development. Results indicate that students have no clear short- or long- term aspirations, yet believe that programming skills are key to achieve a career in IT

Gender and Race Wage Gaps Attributable to Obesity

Currently, two out of three Americans are overweight or obese. In less than 20 years, roughly half of the population will be obese. Furthermore, obesity costs $168.4 billion a year, a number which is projected to increase by$48-66 billion per year. The societal costs of obesity are clear and staggering and the individual costs are equally chilling for most of those who are obese – particularly for Hispanic men and Caucasian and Hispanic women

Active site manipulation in MoS2 cluster electrocatalysts by transition metal doping

The development of non-platinum group metal catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in water electrolyser devices is essential for their widespread and sustainable deployment. In recent years, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) catalysts have received significant attention as they not only exhibit good electrocatalytic HER activity but also, crucially, acid-stability. However, further performance enhancement is required for these materials to be competitive with Pt and to that end transition metal doping of MoS2 has been explored as a route to further increasing its catalytic activity. In this work, cluster beam deposition was employed to produce controlled cobalt-doped MoS2 clusters (MoS2–Co). We demonstrate that, in contrast to previous observations of performance enhancement in MoS2 resulting from nickel doping (MoS2–Ni), the introduction of Co has a detrimental effect on HER activity. The contrasting behaviours of Ni and Co doping are rationalized by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, which suggest that HER-active surface vacancies are deactivated by combination with Co dopant atoms, whilst their activity is retained, or even partially enhanced, by combination with Ni dopant atoms. Furthermore, the adatom dopant–vacancy combination kinetics appear to be more than three orders of magnitude faster in MoS2–Co than for MoS2–Ni. These findings highlight a fundamental difference in the influence of transition metal dopants on the HER performance of MoS2 electrocatalysts and stress the importance of considering surface atomic defects when predicting their behaviour

Rate Effects on Timing, Key Velocity, and Finger Kinematics in Piano Performance

We examined the effect of rate on finger kinematics in goal-directed actions of pianists. In addition, we evaluated whether movement kinematics can be treated as an indicator of personal identity. Pianists' finger movements were recorded with a motion capture system while they performed melodies from memory at different rates. Pianists' peak finger heights above the keys preceding keystrokes increased as tempo increased, and were attained about one tone before keypress. These rate effects were not simply due to a strategy to increase key velocity (associated with tone intensity) of the corresponding keystroke. Greater finger heights may compensate via greater tactile feedback for a speed-accuracy tradeoff that underlies the tendency toward larger temporal variability at faster tempi. This would allow pianists to maintain high temporal accuracy when playing at fast rates. In addition, finger velocity and accelerations as pianists' fingers approached keys were sufficiently unique to allow pianists' identification with a neural-network classifier. Classification success was higher in pianists with more extensive musical training. Pianists' movement “signatures” may reflect unique goal-directed movement kinematic patterns, leading to individualistic sound

Complexity analysis of the stock market

We study the complexity of the stock market by constructing $\epsilon$-machines of Standard and Poor's 500 index from February 1983 to April 2006 and by measuring the statistical complexities. It is found that both the statistical complexity and the number of causal states of constructed $\epsilon$-machines have decreased for last twenty years and that the average memory length needed to predict the future optimally has become shorter. These results support that the information is delivered to the economic agents and applied to the market prices more rapidly in year 2006 than in year 1983.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure